About the Colorado Journeyman Electrician license
Colorado licenses electricians through the Colorado State Electrical Board, part of the Division of Professions and Occupations within the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA). The Journeyman Electrician license authorizes you to perform electrical work, generally under the supervision of a master electrician and in the employ of a licensed electrical contractor. You earn it by meeting the experience-and-education requirement — a combination of documented on-the-job hours and approved classroom instruction, or completion of an approved apprenticeship — and passing the trade exam.
The exam is National Electrical Code (NEC) based, because Colorado adopts the NEC as its electrical code. It is open book, but with an important Colorado-specific twist: PSI provides a clean copy of the adopted NEC edition and a formula page at the test center — you do not bring your own book, and you may not write in, highlight, underline, tab, or otherwise mark the provided reference. That makes the real skill knowing the code's layout well enough to find a section fast in a clean, unmarked copy, because the exam is as much a test of how quickly you can locate a section as it is of what you have memorized. Always confirm the current reference and materials policy on the PSI candidate information bulletin before you test.
Know these scope facts cold, because the exam asks them in plain-language form: the license is held by the individual, not the company; most installations require a permit and inspection before concealment (rough-in) and again at final; you must work within the classification you hold; and performing electrical work without the required license, or beyond your scope, is a violation that can cost you the license and carry civil penalties.
How Colorado licensing works
- Experience: at least 8,000 hours over no fewer than four years of electrical construction wiring for light, heat, and power, including a minimum of 4,000 hours (two years) of commercial and/or industrial work.
- Education: applicants registered as an apprentice on or after January 1, 2011 must also document 288 hours of approved classroom instruction; completion of an approved apprenticeship program satisfies the classroom requirement.
- Application: submit the application, fees, and proof of experience (often signed off by a supervising/master electrician or employer) to the board before you are approved to sit.
- Exam vendor: PSI. The Journeyman Wireman exam is open book and NEC-based, with 90 scored questions (plus up to 10 unscored pretest items) and a time limit of roughly four hours; the passing score is 70 percent (63 of 90). Always confirm the current cut score, question count, and time limit on the PSI candidate information bulletin.
- Renewal: licenses renew on a fixed cycle and usually require continuing education, including code-update hours each time a new NEC edition is adopted.
Before you rely on any value in this guide, confirm the currently adopted NEC edition on the board and PSI bulletin. Ampacities, GFCI/AFCI scope, working-clearance distances, and receptacle-spacing rules all change between editions, and the exam is written to the edition your state has adopted — not necessarily the newest one published.
This is the opening of the full study guide. The complete guide continues into code navigation, worked calculations and solved exam questions.
